The Contrarian » Too Fucking Cute

MS Paint Album Cover Art

Casey Rae-Hunter — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:46:48 +0000

Many renderings of iconic LPs here, all done using MS Paint. Some are quite remarkable, some ridiculous. More info, from Marc Fischer‘s Flickr page:

The drawings in this collection were primarily made by various users in discussion forums on the websites www.foreverdoomed.com and www.stonerrock.com. Using MS Paint, and other rudimentary computer drawing programs, users attempted to recreate their favorite album covers and sometimes let others on the forum guess the band and title from the artwork. Given that the websites are largely devoted to underground heavy metal bands, metal album covers form the largest percentage of the recreations (but are not the only albums included). While some users ‘cheated’ by using a tracing function in the program, most attempted to recreate the covers freehand with just a mouse or the touch pad on their laptops. Some gave themselves a limit of five minutes to recreate the most recognizable essentials.

“You Keen Doo Eeeeet! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!”

Chris Parizo — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:43:37 +0000

A deer hunter’s camera in Baton Rouge, Lousiana captured a night vision pic of this strange beast roaming the Cajun swamps. Some early critics are calling it proof of chupacabra, the elusive “goat sucker” of Latin American cultures; others say it’s a wolf or other canine animal caught at a strange angle. The latest web-sexiness: it’s viral marketing for a new J.J. Abrams film coming out called “Super 8″

Regardless, it’s going to haunt your dreams.

What? You want my two cents? Well then, if I must: lay off the meth, Louisianans — it ruins your teeth and makes you run around the bayou buck-ass naked.

Sunset Feelings

Casey Rae-Hunter — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:15:12 +0000

How did I miss this sweet piece of Fensler Films goodness back in the day?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP_OLmQje48

Cats in IKEA

Casey Rae-Hunter — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:05:48 +0000

“The idea behind the work is that cats know better than anything what makes them feel happy inside. They live their lives in pursuit of their own comfort. So we released a hundred cats into the Ikea Wembley store, for real, to see where they went and what furniture made them happy.” — Feh Tarty, creative director, “Herding Cats” campaign

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCB7RqGS684

Background: A British IKEA ad campaign launches on September 11, 2010 (draw your own synchronistic conclusions about the date). The spot features one hundred cats taking over the furniture store in a 30-second and 90-second clip. The tagline? “Happy inside.”

Surely some of the kittehs were not exactly happy to be tossed into an unfamiliar warehouse with hundreds of other meowmuffins. But apparently the kittens had a blast. The capriciousness of youth!

Marcel the Shell

Casey Rae-Hunter — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:38:27 +0000

Just cuz:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TL3oaHKCko

Bitches Ain’t Shit

Casey Rae-Hunter — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:01:43 +0000

I’m probably late to the party on this one, but whatevs. For fans of Dr. Dre, college gals, tennis and a cappella.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oloFLyel3Is

Hat tip to MGP.

I Love This Band

Neil Cleary — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:19:59 +0000

As many Contrarian readers can likely understand, I hate music. More specifically, I love music. Which is to say I love music so much that the disappointments are harder to take and as years go by, it’s somehow harder to even like music, which results in a generally reluctant and embittered outlook, see opening sentence. Thus it’s extra exciting when a musical experience can bust through my negative forcefield. Such is the case with Lake Street Dive.

Apart from their name (a minor reservation I’ve learned to live with), they have that magical combination of things that I love in a band: individual personalities within a strong band personality, fierce musical skill without pretentiousness, tight arrangements played with a loose feel, and well-written songs — but most importantly they’re just fun as shit. Their sense of humor and weird-but-right group aesthetic reminds me of what I love about NRBQ (the reason I have to watch this clip daily). Also similar to the ‘Q is their respect for and ability to play jazz without being bound by its pious trappings. Easier said than done.

I’ve seen them live all of once, but they have an infectious series of YouTube clips that have been quietly stoking my fandom. They’re simple, one-camera, lo-fi productions and showcase their knack for using simplicity to their advantage. The one limitation of the small screen is that it doesn’t accurately portray their ability to really rock a room. Live, they are a fantastic explosion of energy. Regardless, their clips are cute, and isn’t that what YouTube was built on?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ilIa0VHrk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUkF5eIUPrA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxpOT9-iZmw

Find more here and here.

My Cat is Don Draper

Casey Rae-Hunter — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:25:23 +0000

Handsome guys can always get away with anything.

The Books: “A Cold Freezin’ Night”

Casey Rae-Hunter — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:57:14 +0000

One of the finest duos in musical history, The Books, are back with another wonderful record. Here’s the video for “A Cold Freezin’ Night,” which is built on a sample of two little kids arguing. It’s not exactly representational of the rest of the album, but it’s The Books, so what is representational?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqlVCKfX3hk

Your Monday Morning Awesome.

Matthew King — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:25:27 +0000

Mondays generally are not the best days of the week and we all need a little something extra to get us kick-started for the week that isn’t all the work that piled up over the weekend. This is that something extra. Enjoy!